Total No. of Questions [Total No. of Pages 03
MBA YEARS) DEGREE EXAMINATION, MAY 2017
Second Year
HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION
Counselling Skills for Managers
Time 3 Hours Maximum Marks 70
Section A
Answer any three × 5 15]
Q1) Directive counselling
Characteristics of counselling
Expert counsellor
Transtheoretical model
Adoption
Target behaviour
Section B
Answer any three × 15 45]
Q2) Explain nature and types of counselling.
Q3) How does the usage of right counseling attitudes help in the "unloading" of anxiety for the
client? What are the problems likely to crop up during the last stage of counseling?
Q4) Discuss the concept of assening health-related behaviours in detail.
Q5) Examine the role of counsellor in safeguarding clients.
Q6) Illustrate the characteristics, tools and strategies required for change.
Q7) Mention few counseling services in health industries.
Section C
Compulsory
Q8) Case study
ROUND-THE-CLOCK STRESS
Many employees feel that on- the- job stress is difficult to control, but at least
when they get home they can relax. However, as the nature of work changes, the home is
no longer the sanctuary it once was. With advanced information technology and customer
demands for 24-hours service, an increasing number of employees are on call at all times
or working the "graveyard" shift that used to exist only for factory workers. For example,
today there are numerous Wal-Mart stores, Walgreens drugstores and supermarkets that
never close. And consider the Heartland Golf Park in Deer Park, Long Island. A golfer
who wants a late evening tee-off time can get one up to 3.00 AM. The strategy has proven
so popular that within 90 days of the time it was introduced, the wait time at midnight had
grown to two and a half hours, Avid golfers do not mind, however, as the course is well lit
and they can play as if it were high noon.
All around the country, businesses are realizing that there is a great deal of
profit that can be added to the bottom line if they remain open outside of "normal" hours.
One research firm estimates that this strategy can add 5 percent to overa1l profits, a hefty
sum given that more and more businesses are finding their profit margins being narrowed
by the competition.
In some cases, the decision to expand working hours has been a result of customer
needs. Kinko's inc., a privately held chain of photocopy shops, moved to a 24-hour
schedule when people literally started banging on their doors after regular business hours
and asking them to let them come in for desperately needed photocopies. As a news article
recently put it, "The company's….. stores are magnets for ambassadors of the night:
everyone from dreamers pursuing secret schemes and second careers to executives putting
the final touches on tomorrow's presentation." In Chicago, Kinko's set up an office in the
lobby of the Stouffer Renaissance hotel, a favourite spot of international executives.
Customers from different time zones had been coming down at odd hours to ask the hotel
to fax materials abroad and to help them with their desktop publishing. The hotel was not
equipped to provide these services, so it asked Kinko's to help out. The guests are
delighted with the new service, and the hotel is happy to be able to accommodate them
thanks to their profitable arrangement with Kinko's
Banks have also begun to offer 24-hour service. In addition to their ATM machines,
which can be found Just about everywhere, some banks now offer round-the-clock
service, customers can call in and find out within 10 minutes whether they quality for a
new-car loan. A growing number of banks also offer after-hours customer services ranging
from safe deposit boxes to $1,000 credit lines to overdraft protection. All the customer has
to do is call in at any hour and provide the necessary information.
Some critics are concerned that this development will result in increasing costs to
business and added stress to employees. After all, when people work late at night or put in
a 15-hour day, they are likely not only to make far more mistakes than if they were on a
to-5 schedule but also to become fatigued and burned out. Nevertheless, at
the present time approximately two-thirds of all US workers, around 75 million people, do
not work traditional 9-to-5 hours and the number is definitely growing. Additionally,
organisations that are engaged in international business such as brokerage firms, are
finding that their operations in Europe and Asia require them to keep odd hours. A US
based broker must be up or on call in the wee hours of the morning because Europe's
stock exchanges are doing business. By the time the broker wraps up trading on the
Pacific Stock Exchange in the early evening (Eastern Standard Time), there are only a few
hours before the Asian stock exchanges open. Simply put, in an increasing number of
businesses, it is possible to work round-the-clock and, of course, to pick up the stress that
goes along with this lifestyle.
Questions
1. How would a Type A personality feel if his or her organisation suddenly announced
that everyone was to be on call 24-hours a day because the company was moving to
round-the-clock customer service?
2. How would psychological hardiness help people deal with these emerging roundthe-
clock operations
3. What are some ways employees and their organisations could cope with the stress
caused by these new round-the-clock development